Planet Zoo Planet Zoo!

DesertRhino150 said:
Confirmation that the newest pack is the Grasslands Animal Pack, releasing on 13th December, and containing nine-banded armadillo, emu, maned wolf, caracal, red-necked wallaby, striped hyena, blue wildebeest and five butterfly species for the walkthrough exhibit - the cloudless sulfur, European peacock, Menelaus blue morpho, monarch and Old World swallowtail. The butterflies are the first exhibit animals with an interspecies bonus.

More information in the link below:
Planet Zoo: Grasslands Animal Pack arriving 13 December
Click to expand...

Nice line up, filling some important gaps in a 'normal' zoo with species like emu and wallaby - and a mixed-species Exhibit is possibly another step on the pathway to aviary birds. Being Euro-zoo-centric it wouldn't have been my pick to go for Nine-banded over, say, Six-banded, and it's a bit odd to have the temperate butterfly species as these are seldom kept in zoos - but otherwise, all good. Looking forward to having both wildebeest in the game as well.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Confirmation that the newest pack is the Grasslands Animal Pack, releasing on 13th December, and containing nine-banded armadillo, emu, maned wolf, caracal, red-necked wallaby, striped hyena, blue wildebeest and five butterfly species for the walkthrough exhibit - the cloudless sulfur, European peacock, Menelaus blue morpho, monarch and Old World swallowtail. The butterflies are the first exhibit animals with an interspecies bonus.

More information in the link below:
Planet Zoo: Grasslands Animal Pack arriving 13 December
Click to expand...
Thoughts on the animals:
  • Armadillo was expected, and is a welcome addition.
  • Maned Wolf!!!! One of the last few canids I actually wanted! Will we get an enrichment bonus with the anteater?
  • Emu and wallaby are great additions to Australian collections.
  • We got a bit of ZT2 African Adventure energy with the Caracal and Striped Hyena. I fear that people won’t like the hyena much, but I think it’s distinct enough!
  • Blue wildebeest… well, this is awkward. I don’t hate that we got this animal, but now I don’t think I’ll ever use the Black Wildebeest. Sad.
  • Butterflies are neat. We are getting so much closer to birds….
All in all, a decent animal pack. Maned wolf, emu, and wallaby are gonna be hella useful for recreating my home zoo of Phoenix.
 
Pretty good generally - maned wolf and emu already have exhibits standing empty in my zoo, in the expectation that they would arrive eventually. Wallaby and hyena are great additions - don't especially mind one way or the other about the caracal or the armadillo. I wish we had blackbuck rather than the wildebeest, though.

I hope that the mixed walkthrough exhibit is yet more teasing (and testing systems) for birds.
 
Corangurilla said:
Thoughts on the animals:
  • Armadillo was expected, and is a welcome addition.
  • Maned Wolf!!!! One of the last few canids I actually wanted! Will we get an enrichment bonus with the anteater?
  • Emu and wallaby are great additions to Australian collections.
  • We got a bit of ZT2 African Adventure energy with the Caracal and Striped Hyena. I fear that people won’t like the hyena much, but I think it’s distinct enough!
  • Blue wildebeest… well, this is awkward. I don’t hate that we got this animal, but now I don’t think I’ll ever use the Black Wildebeest. Sad.
  • Butterflies are neat. We are getting so much closer to birds….
All in all, a decent animal pack. Maned wolf, emu, and wallaby are gonna be hella useful for recreating my home zoo of Phoenix.
Click to expand...
at least both wildebeests are morphologically different since their manes are different and have a different skin, also the blue wildebeest lives in semi deserts and it's a migratory species, while the black wildebeest is smaller than the blue wildebeest and is very territorial. so both wildebeests are very different.
 
Last edited:
Seeing how I've made this a bit of a tradition I'll rank the new animals from best to least inclusion-wise.

1- Butterflies: even though they aren't flying birds, I'm still very glad they've added them, as butterfly houses are a staple of many zoos. And the fact that it's five whole species just makes it extra special!

2- Nine-banded armadillo: I can't hide my bias here, as xenarthrans are my favorite mammal clade, and the nine-banded armadillo is an excellent choice due to its wide ecological and geographic range. The amount of species it can be housed with is almost limitless!

3- Caracal: Finally, another small cat (well, relatively speaking). Although the serval would have been nice, I think this cat also has the benefits of having a wider distribution, being more handy when building a Middle Eastern themed area, for example. Fingers crossed that they can bring more small cats later on

4- Striped hyena: even though it was unexpected (like most animals on this pack, to be honest), much like the caracal, this hyena's wide distribution makes it quite versatile, and it's always cool to have two different types of hyena.

5- Emu: The third ratite to be added to the game, the emu is definitely a welcome addition, especially as it can really help flesh out Australian paddocks; in my opinion, they're a better fit to mix with red kangaroos in expansive walk-through enclosures than koalas are.

6- Maned wolf: this highly requested canid may look low on my list, as we do have plenty of dogs, but make no mistake; I'm very happy this South American oddity made it in, further enriching its once neglected continent. I especially hope they can be housed with anteaters and maybe even llamas, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

7- Red-necked wallaby: though next-to last on the list, I'm actually quite happy at the inclusion of the red-necked wallaby, which gives the Oceanian roster a nice little boost. Sure, maybe I would have preferred the yellow-footed rock wallaby, but this little guy is fine in my book, as it's a famous staple in zoos worldwide.

8- Blue wildebeest: here my goodwill… kind of peeters off. Really now; do we need two types of wildebeest? Sure, the blue one is more common, and many say it would have been a better choice than the black gnu, but there are SO many other, more unique African antelopes that could have been chosen instead; the eland, gerenuk, impala, blesbok and topi, just to name a few. I don't outright hate this one, don't get me wrong, but… it could have been better in my opinion.
 
Alright pack, the butterflies are probably my favourite honestly. I wanted emus and armadillos so it is nice to have them! The maned wolf and caracal are also good additions, finally we get a smaller cat...

The rest I don't care for too much... Honestly would have preferred a rock-wallaby and I only would have got interested in another hyena if it was aardwolf. The blue wildebeest feels like a waste I won't lie, did we really need both species? I feel like there was better choices to be made here.
 
Liking the roster on the DLC pack. Of course, the butterflies are a really awesome addition, and I'm especially excited about the reveal that walkthrough exhibits will allow for some species mixing. I was really hoping that would be the case, when birds get added I really want mixed species exhibits.

I'm happy with a lot of the choices for habitat species. I've been wanting emus and maned wolves for a while. The armadillo is great too, we don't have an armadillo yet, and it and the maned wolf will be nice additions to my South America area. Caracal is another one I'm excited about, I'm always complaining about how we don't have enough small cats, lol. New hyena and wallaby are nice. My only complaint is the wildebeest. We already have a wildebeest so it would have been nice to get a different kind of ungulate.
 
TheMightyOrca said:
Liking the roster on the DLC pack. I was really hoping that would be the case, when birds get added I really want mixed species exhibits.
Click to expand...
That'a good point; the fact that we got multiple butterfly species opens many doors. I'd love to see packs that add selections of songbirds and lorikeets for example. There is an absolutely vast variety of the first, enough to make a pack for each continent almost! Personally I'd prioritize passerines from Southeast Asia, Africa and South America.
 
Honestly a pretty good pack. Armadillo is fairly unique and represents a much wanted group. Emu boosts the Aussie roster nicely and likely will have enrichment bonuses with a bunch of them. Wallaby I would have preferred a different species but it is nice to see them make the game. Maned wolf is another large canid but I am very happy to see them arrive, a favorite of mine there. Striped Hyena... eh okay. Personally would have liked Aardwolf but it's not horrible. Caracal finally gives us another small cat to help offset the three foxes, took long enough. A good choice too. Butterflies are a surprise on a few levels - multiple species in one slot for a start. How big are they going to be? Most of those species are not particularly large. How will breeding work with their caterpillar and chrysalis stages? Are they just going to spawn adult butterflies every two weeks? Most of the chosen species are very short-lived, are they going to extend this? Are they going to have space requirements? I'm curious to see how this works. I'd be a bit more interested with species like Atlas Moth and Giant Owl Butterfly as well. They gave us a NA species with Cloudless Sulphur, but I've never seen a wild one nor a captive one...
And the Wildebeest - waste of a slot. I stand by the opinion it should have been Blue in the base game and that was enough. Could've been Kudu, Gerenuk, Dama Gazelle, Blackbuck, Eland, Bontebok - but we got another double up. Darn.
 
I appreciate the choices for this roster but

Armadillo is very welcome. I am just glad that the greater majority will be satisfied with the maned wolf (despite the fact that I prefer bush dogs.) Emu, striped hyena, and caracal are animals that I associate more with deserts than with grasslands (and I would instead go with greater rhea, aardwolf, serval) but still are welcome. While I agree with many that Frontier could have chosen a more charismatic species, I am glad that the kangaroo rig has been put into use with the red-necked wallaby. As most people here said, the blue wildebeest may feel redundant animal when we have many more animals to choose from, but I say, two wildebeests to chooose from is always better than one.

For some reason I am very happy about the butterfies more than the idea of getting birds. Probably because not only it makes me feel more smug over the fact that I was right about birds not coming anytime soon but also because of how unexpected they were.

However, despite my personal nitpicks, I am pretty pleased with this roster.
 
Corangurilla said:
Blue Wildebeest is weird. It’s been in Zoo Tycoon 1 & 2, so it absolutely deserves a place in Planet Zoo.
However, it should’ve been in the base game over the Black Wildebeest. We’re twelve packs in and it JUST showed up. Maybe this is a rare instance where “never” would’ve been better than “late”.
Click to expand...

My outlook on this is to enjoy what comes and not stress about what might not. The only animal species that I think shouldn't be in the game are those that are literally impossible to have in zoos - so nothing extinct, mythological, or totally impractical (baleen whales, for example). My preference is for species currently kept in zoos - but with a mix of common and rare species.

It seems unlikely Planet Zoo is going to do anything to breach these principles on evidence so far - so within the rather extensive range of species left, I'm genuinely easy. I could bring up a few things I'd really particularly like (porcupine springs to mind, and of course more birds) or a few cases where I'd have picked a near relative in lieu of something (an African croc in for one of the caimans maybe?) but there's nothing that would actually upset or disappoint me.

I think it's just I've made my peace that no zoo game will ever have everything, so while speculation and guesswork is all good clean fun, I'm never actually unhappy with any species they actually add. Arctic Wolf was probably the closest I've been, but even that is actually quite a nice animal when you actually come to use it - so I'm fine with it. And I recognise there is likely an economic reason for having some animals in these packs be ones that can use a bit more of the existing code than others. If it helps them add more over time, I'm all on board.

I'm also never too fussed about things 'missing out' on their theme slots - if Frontier want to release an animal they'll find a justification somewhere along the line. :)
 
Corangurilla said:
Blue Wildebeest is weird. It’s been in Zoo Tycoon 1 & 2, so it absolutely deserves a place in Planet Zoo.
However, it should’ve been in the base game over the Black Wildebeest. We’re twelve packs in and it JUST showed up. Maybe this is a rare instance where “never” would’ve been better than “late”.
Click to expand...
i think people would have accepted better both wildebeests if the blue wildebeest was in the base game and then the black wildebeest being in the grasslands animal pack
 
Corangurilla said:
Secretary bird has missed their chance three times now. Africa, Conservation (they’re Endangered), and now Grasslands.
Maybe someday…
Click to expand...

maybe an unpopular opinion but Secretary bird is really pretty low on the priority list for me, there are many other unique birds more common in zoos and I don’t think the Secretary bird would be getting a look in if it wasn’t in ZT2. How it’s now 8/9th on the wishlist is nuts to me…

I’d much rather the Greater Rhea, southern ground hornbill, grey-crowned crane, black-crowned crane, white stork, pink-backed pelican, great white pelican, scarlet ibis, African spoonbill, Bernier’s Teal, Black Swan, Northern Bald Ibis, helmeted Guineafowl, Pheasants, Roul-roul etc etc.

Why is the Secretary bird so highly requested? It’s not that common in zoos and not particularly colourful compared to other more common and uniquely shaped birds. I think many on the wishlist just go ‘I want birds’ and so vote for the bird high up on the wishlist already and the Secretary bird got a heads start because of its ZT2 appearance. If in the early days grey-crowned crane had got a few votes I think that would now be 8-9th on the wishlist because people are just pushing up the highest ranked bird now regardless of the actual species. A lot of them probably don’t even know what a Secretary bird is, I was having a discussion of high priority SA species on the forums yesterday and one of them told me Agouti’s aren’t a common feature of SA sections before admitting they’d never heard of an Agouti…
 
And I'd like to add we're pretty low on bird's numbers as well...
Hopefully the butterflies are the last teaser at birds, and new years is truly a new beginning...

Or just idk drop us with a PZ 2 trailer with birds and aquariums, that'd be hilariously infuriating
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top